Images Beyond Visible

Oleksandr Holovachov

Naturalist and photographer Oleksandr Holovachov studies the diversity and evolution of some of the smallest animals on Earth. His photography is dedicated to imaging the invisible. At the Biohacker Summit you have the opportunity to experience his beautiful, otherwordly UV-induced photography that captures the essence of biological organisms hidden to human eye. Some material and objects, when subjected to short wave electromagnetic radiation, will emit another type of electromagnetic radiation, usually with lower energy and longer wavelength. The general therm luminescence refers to the emission of electromagnetic radiation by a substance by absorption of incident radiation when only part of the absorbed energy is converted into heat (Ray, 1999). Since part of the energy is transformed into heat in the process, the emitted electromagnetic radiation is usually of longer wavelength. Luminescence exists in various types: if after the removal of the stimulus, the afterglow occurs within few nanoseconds and decays in less than 10 nanoseconds, the term fluorescence is used; if the afterglow persist for longer, up to many days, the term phosphorescence is used instead (Ultraviolet and Fluorescence Photography, 1974; Ray, 1999). Fluorescence photography, therefore, refers to capturing of light emitted by the object instantly, under the influence of shorter wave electromagnetic radiation. Many natural objects and substances fluoresce under ultraviolet or blue light, including rocks and minerals (Warren et al., 1999), fungi and bacterial cultures (Williams & Williams, 1994), lichens and plants, hard corals and Anthozoa, crustaceans (Mazel et al., 2004) and spiders (Andrews et al., 2007), fish and birds (Arnold et al., 2002), body tissues and fluids, etc (Williams & Williams, 1994).

Artists can push the boundaries of the way we see the world. By capturing invisible light, we show a new dimension to biology and reveal things that are not visible to a human eye.

Summary

- Infrared photography captures the high contrast between light-reflecting plants and dark skies, revealing a ghostly, dramatic dimension of nature and urban survival.

- Ultraviolet photography serves both technical roles in forensics and science, such as revealing patterns flowers use to attract insects, and artistic roles by focusing on texture and shape.

- Multispectral photography combines visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light to simulate how different organisms, like bees and birds, perceive their environment through their unique visual systems.

- Fluorescence photography uses ultraviolet illumination in darkness to capture the visible glow emitted by plants and minerals, revealing light processes usually hidden by daylight.

- The fluorescence observed in flower pollen may serve a photoprotective role, converting harmful ultraviolet radiation into harmless visible light to protect the plant’s DNA and reproduction.

Article

Images Beyond Visible

At Biohacker Summit 2018 Stockholm, Oleksandr Holovachov Opened A Door Into Worlds The Human Eye Cannot See

On 18 May 2018, at Biohacker Summit 2018 Stockholm in Sweden, the naturalist and photographer Oleksandr Holovachov delivered a presentation titled *Images Beyond Visible*, a talk that moved between science, art and philosophy with unusual grace. Holovachov, whose work studies the diversity and evolution of some of the smallest animals on Earth, brought to the stage a body of photography devoted to what most of us never witness: light beyond human perception.

His subject was invisible light photography, spanning infrared, ultraviolet, multispectral and fluorescence imaging. Yet the talk was not merely technical. It became, instead, an argument for humility. Nature, Holovachov suggested, is crowded with signals, warnings, invitations and protective mechanisms that are constantly unfolding around us, even as we pass by blind to them.

Introduced as an artist showing “a new dimension to biology,” Holovachov responded with a presentation that made good on that promise.

Infrared Photography As A Portrait Of Urban Survival

Holovachov began in the infrared region of the spectrum, the most accessible form of invisible light photography and one that has become familiar through its dramatic visual language: black skies, pale foliage, deep shadow, luminous trees. The reason, he explained, is straightforward and extraordinary at once. Plants reflect infrared light strongly, while areas of sky away from the sun contain virtually none of it. The result is a stark natural contrast, almost theatrical in intensity.

But Holovachov did not present infrared merely as a visual trick. He used it as a means of storytelling.

“I wanted to portray the struggle that plants have surviving in the urban environment, stretching their leaves in one direction toward life-giving beams of light,” he said.

In that framing, infrared ceased to be novelty and became metaphor. Plants in Stockholm’s downtown spaces appeared ghostly, almost bleached of life, yet still straining toward survival. The white foliage and darkened surroundings made visible a struggle that usually goes unremarked: the quiet persistence of living things in hostile built environments.

Ultraviolet Photography And The Hidden Language Of Flowers

If infrared offered a ghost story of resilience, ultraviolet photography offered a revelation about communication. Holovachov described UV imaging as a more technical field, widely used in forensics, medicine and scientific study. It can reveal skin damage, trauma, and, crucially, the patterns flowers use to attract pollinators.

These markings, often called bullseye patterns, are invisible to humans but visible to insects. In other words, a flower that appears visually simple to us may already be broadcasting instructions to a bee.

“By removing all colors and focusing only on shapes and textures, we can reveal the invisible patterns flowers use to communicate with and attract insects,” Holovachov said.

He linked this mode of seeing to the history of photography itself. The wet plate collodion process of the mid-19th century, he noted, was sensitive to ultraviolet and blue light, producing highly detailed, colourless images rich in texture and contrast. But where that historical technique demanded dangerous chemicals and difficult handling, digital ultraviolet photography offered a safer, more flexible alternative. It could preserve the aesthetic severity of early image-making while opening new scientific and artistic possibilities.

Multispectral Photography And The Question Of How Other Creatures See

The presentation widened further when Holovachov turned to multispectral photography, where visible, ultraviolet and infrared images can be combined. Here, he said, the photographer gained extraordinary creative freedom, not by abandoning reality but by reassembling it through the sensory logics of other organisms.

“Multispectral photography offers complete artistic freedom to portray how other organisms see the world, from the vision of bees to birds and butterflies,” he said.

This was one of the talk’s most arresting ideas. Human vision, for all its richness, is provincial. Bees see ultraviolet but not red. Birds and butterflies possess more complex visual systems, with four sensory channels rather than three, allowing them to process a wider range of wavelengths. What looks complete to us is, to them, partial.

Holovachov’s images attempted to bridge that gap. A panoramic comparison of bee, bird and human vision made plain that perception is not singular but ecological. Every creature moves through a different visual reality, tuned to its own needs, dangers and desires.

A Heat Map For Hungry Bees

From there, Holovachov took the concept one step further, creating what he described as a “hot target for a hungry bee.” By blending visible and ultraviolet photography, he constructed artificial heat maps in which warm colours marked the parts of flowers most attractive or biologically meaningful to pollinators, while cooler blues receded into relative insignificance.

“We can visualize a world of hot targets for hungry bees, highlighting parts of the landscape most important to them that are entirely invisible to the human eye,” he said.

The phrase captured something essential about the talk. This was not simply about making hidden things visible. It was about exposing value systems embedded in nature. What matters most in a landscape depends on who is looking. For a human, a meadow may be scenic. For a bee, it is a map of urgent signals, nutritional rewards and reproductive pathways.

Fluorescence And The Glow Of Protection

The final portion of the talk shifted into fluorescence photography, the method that had also been showcased visually at the event. Holovachov explained the process with clarity. When high-energy light, such as ultraviolet radiation, is absorbed by a material, some of that energy is re-emitted almost immediately at a longer wavelength. What returns is visible glow: blue, yellow, red, and other colours emerging from darkness.

This phenomenon, he noted, is already woven into ordinary life. Fluorescent minerals, anti-counterfeit inks on money and documents, stamps, and even household objects can all carry this hidden radiance. Yet in biological subjects, particularly flowers and plant tissues, fluorescence takes on a deeper intrigue.

Holovachov drew attention to pollen, often the brightest fluorescent element in a flower. One hypothesis for this glow, he said, is photoprotection: the conversion of harmful ultraviolet radiation into harmless visible light, thereby helping shield delicate DNA from damage.

“Plants optimize their reproductive performance by converting harmful ultraviolet light into a harmless visible glow, protecting their DNA from damage and mutation,” he said.

Whether as hypothesis or emerging explanation, the idea was powerful. The flower’s glow was not merely decorative. It might be functional, a chemical defence folded into beauty.

Science, Art And The Discipline Of Looking Again

What made *Images Beyond Visible* memorable at Biohacker Summit 2018 Stockholm was not simply the beauty of Holovachov’s photographs, though by all accounts they possessed that in abundance. It was the way he used image-making to challenge habits of perception. The talk insisted that much of reality lies not beyond reason but beyond our sensory defaults.

Holovachov’s work stood at a rare intersection. It was scientifically literate without becoming dry, and aesthetically ambitious without drifting into abstraction. He treated photography not as passive recording but as translation: from bee to human, from ultraviolet to visible, from hidden process to public understanding.

In the end, the presentation asked for something more than admiration. It asked for a revised way of seeing. Plants became strugglers in hostile streets. Flowers became communicators. Pollen became a site of molecular defence. Light itself became less a constant than a layered language, spoken differently by every organism alive.

For one afternoon in Stockholm, Oleksandr Holovachov made the invisible legible, and in doing so reminded the audience that the world had always been far stranger, and far more intelligent, than human vision alone could ever admit.

Part of Biohacker Summit 2018 Stockholm